I can't imagine how stressful THIS lottery was!

[jseth]

When they held the first "Lottery", I was pretty anxiously awaiting the news of where "my number" fell... and was SO relieved to find it at 331 or something like that...

Then a friend said, "Oh no, this lottery isn't for your age group,; you're in the NEXT one..."!!!

Of course, the next one, my number was 32 or some such... I felt extremely fortunate to find I had a medical deferment.

I lost a lot of good friends "over there", and helped a lot of new friends recover from being in-country... Vietnam veterans did not get a whole lot of "love" when they came home...

[seannx]

I was a sophomore in college, with a 2-S Student deferment, and remember listening to the lottery numbers as they were announced on the radio. One of our friend's birthday was number one. Mine was 298.

At that time, one of my main reasons for attending in college was to avoid being drafted. Studies were secondary to listening to music, going to concerts, parties, and having fun.

With such a high number, I effectively escaped any risk of being drafted, and had to come up with a new attitude and reason for staying in school. So after that I took studying more seriously.

[Rodger Knox]

My number was 76, and I had a student deferment. At the beginning of December they had called up to the low 60s, and if you were 1-A at the end of the year, you were classified 1-H. I canceled my student deferment and became 1-A, there was a big offensive and more were called up, everyone with number 74 or less.
Missed it by that much, and have always been grateful.

[mdunn]

I was already signed; sealed & delivered into the US Army. I had signed up because I had already been drafted and deferred once. I knew the day I graduated the induction process would start all over.

In 1968 I voluntarily chose to join a US Army Reserve unit in Tucson, Arizona. I did my 6 years (most of it in Chicago), and mustered out in 1974 with an honorable discharge.

[AX17609]

It was like standing in line waiting for your execution. My draft number was 62; my room mate's was 63. Those were horrible times. Horrible.

I graduated from HS in 1971. My lottery number was in the 300s so I didn't get drafted.

EDIT - I just looked it up. Since I was born in 1953, my lottery was in 1973. My date (March 27) was picked number 181. The highest lottery number drafted that year was 95. I think 1973 was when we were pulling out, so even if I would have "won" that lottery I don't think I would have had to go to Vietnam. Links here and here (probably already shared, but there's power in redundancy)

[alnico5]

My draft number was 27. I was in college and kept getting deferred. Then one day I got a letter from the draft board saying I no longer had to report.

[BrunoBlack]

Number 319 was my lucky number. However, too many of my friends were unlucky.

[ras1500]

I think my number was 142. Fortunately, they did not go that high the year I got out of college.

[TaoMaas]

I was a freshman in college when they held the lottery. One of the local radio stations would tell you your number if you'd give them your birthdate. There were two pay phones in our dorm so we all crowded around them, handing lists of birthdays to the two guys working the phones. As they'd get answers, the guys on the phones would shout out birthdays with their corresponding numbers. Most of my circle of friends had fairly high numbers so there was a huge sense of relief among us. But then we noticed one friend walking away down the hallway. We yelled, "John...what's your number?" He didn't acknowledge us so we yelled again...."John! What's your number?" He never turned around. Just held up 3 fingers and kept walking.

[KevWind]

Yes it was pretty stressful. I turned 18, in 1968 so I was in the first lottery, my number was 179 which drafted everyone up to 195

[4mer618er]

Hey Flaggerphil, thank you for your service, and WELCOME HOME!

[muscmp]

i was drafted pre-lottery. very stressful!! didn't even have the chance to play the numbers game. took 2 years out of my life having crazy people yell, scream and beat me and my cohorts. meanwhile my buddies back home were making tons of money shooting screws in the back of refrigerators.

it did get me out of ohio since no one would hire me after i got out. started a new life in CA and only visited my parents now and then. it did get me into my home with the va mortgage too. not all bad stuff.

play music!

[Yamaha Man]

My number was 52. They had me come in for a physical and a couple weeks later the draft was cancelled. I didn't have to go. My mom said we were going to move to Canada before I was to go, but the draft ended so I was no longer obligated. College deferment wasn't in the cards for me, because the Kent State shooting had just happened and my dad said, NO COLLEGE for you !!!!

[Cypress Knee]

Hello All,

Not to open up any wounds, but I just wanted to say that my post about the book "Stolen Valor" was not about the people who served in the combat support and service roles. We know that it takes a lot of logisticians and so forth to keep the combat guys going.

It was about those guys who had jobs in admin areas that allowed them access to paperwork that they could later counterfeit. Some of them were actually in country, others were in the service but not Viet Nam, and others never served at all.

The key "tells" are that the narrative basically states that the imposter was an 11B infantry, Airborne and Ranger qualified, and a graduate of the Special Warfare training program that would allow him to be called a "Green Beret". The heroic missions are almost always "classified" with no documentation because they were "so secret", the fellow soldiers (airman/marines/sailors etc) who could corollate the narrative had all been killed behind enemy lines and their bodies never recovered, and in many cases the perp claimed that he had killed many, many VC, women, and children and his awards that were never publicly acknowledged include the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, Bronze Star (sometime with "V" if they remember) and numerous Purple Hearts. They could not be acknowledged because his mission was so "classified."

Subsequent investigation of military records would reveal a SP4 mechanic stationed in Heidelberg during the Vietnam era.

CK